notes from the road: Bleecker Street

Thoughts while enjoying a juice from The Yippie Cafe at the end of a beautiful ride…

1. At the end of Bleecker, the bike lane merges from the left hand side of the street to the middle, creating left and right turn lanes (see image below). The transition works quite well (not one confused rider during my observations), and seems to be a good mix between bike infrastructure and vehicular cycling know-how.

Shifting Bike Lane

2. The only question from the above scenario is where do cyclists making a right on Bowery go: in the bike lane or on the outside of the right turn lane? I tried both, and the latter option seems much safer, and puts you directly into the Bowery bike lane. Is this intuitive to most riders, or would signage and/or sharrows work?

3. Speaking of sharrows, at the Christopher Street intersection, the street splits into a Y, with the left side keeping the bike lane and sharrows appearing on the right side (see image). When there is traffic, its a tough move for cyclists to move from the bike lane to the shared lane. How could this be improved?

A tricky move from left to right.

4. I was in a bike flock of just three riders (I think that is technically a flock), and even then we exhibited our power in numbers. The highlight came when a car cut in front of us and parked in the bike lane. The cab that was driving behind it deferred to the three of us (who had to squeeze onto the car lane). Perhaps this would have happened anyway had there been just one rider, but with the three of us there, the cab had no choice. (That’s all on bike flocks for now, but stay tuned for a dedicated post coming soon).

5. Why aren’t more people riding Bleecker? It is an easy, scenic, and safe ride, and a good connection from west to east.  It conencts well with Lafayette Street (which will bring you to Brooklyn Bridge), Bowery (which brings you to Manhattan Bridge), and puts you right into the East Village.

are cabs the safest autos?

An open question: Could cabbies actually be the safest drivers in NYC?

I know it sounds crazy (and it could be), but think about it: They drive in the city so often that encountering cyclists and peds are second nature to them, and are often times prepared to encounter somebody on a bike. Sure, they are easy to spot in bike lanes or double parked, but couldn’t that just be a result of their being so ubiquitous (not to mention, the nature of their job)?

Drivers who are unfamiliar with driving in the city seem more likely to be grossly negligent: speeding through a red light or using a bike lane as an express lane. Many are not used to the heavy pedestrian and cyclist traffic on the streets, and have trouble modifying their behavior.

Thoughts?

notes from the road: Spring Street

Thoughts while getting soaked for an afternoon…

1. There are very few street markings along Spring Street, which leads to some sticky situations. During my ride, there were many times where the traffic patter felt like a free-for-all. Nobody had any sense of where they belonged in the street community—drivers, parked cars, and cyclists. Unfortunately, the cyclists usually get whatever space is left over.

A Free-For-All on Spring Street

2. Because of the little space that is left for cyclists, I often found myself riding in narrow lanes between parked cars and traffic (see image below). For more experienced cyclists, this may not be a problem. For those on the fence about riding in the city, this is one of those “no chance” scenarios—not a good thing.

Little Room to Ride

3. If you make it to the end of Spring Street, you are rewarded with the old Germania Bank building, which is now a makeshift museum for street art (I’m not going to ruin it with a photo).

notes from the road: Boston & Cambridge, MA

Having to travel up north for the weekend, I took the opportunity to hook up with John Allen, a well-known and respected voice on vehicular cycling. He was gracious enough to allow me to tag along with him and his friend for a ride to check out some of the new bicycle infrastructure being put down in Cambridge and Boston’s downtown areas.

I will write more about Mr. Allen’s views, and some competing thoughts on his views later. For now, here are a few thoughts from the ride:

1. Although it is hard for me to criticize any effort to make a space safer for cyclists, there are some silly things that have been done (in Boston and elsewhere). One of them is shown below: a bike path in Cambridge that takes room pedestrians (and provides no kind of buffer between cycle and foot traffic). What’s more, when we were riding on it during rush hour, the street was quite calm.

2. In Boston, you can go from riding along a nice, slow-moving route to a hectic street without realizing it. I’m not sure if this is due to the city’s smaller size, but it can be a bit scary for new cyclists.

3. There are a number of highways that either cut through the city (ie: between Boston and South Boston) or travel along the city and spit out traffic onto the street, which makes for some heavy traffic patters. As I was riding into South Boston from the Copley Farmers Market (which is exceptional by the way), I found myself having to cross on and off-ramps for I-93—not ideal.

4. Cycle traffic was much heavier than I had anticipated in Cambridge (especially during college break). Conversely, cycle traffic in Boston was non-existent.

6. The view from the Harvard bridge is something else.

notes from the road: Prince Street

Thoughts while people watching—I mean, bicycling—along the Prince Street bike lane.

1. As you glide through Soho, the sidewalks become very narrow. This is compounded by the large number of street merchandisers that are also along the sidewalk. The result of all this? Pedestrians pushed on to the bike lane, which has no buffer between the curb. See image below:

2. Even taking into account the busy sidewalks mentioned above, the street scene is much more organized than Grand Street. This makes the bike lane, although unprotected (unlike Grand), feel safter along most of the route.

3. Cars turning right off of MacDougal Street have a tricky intersection. The angle makes it difficult for them to spot oncoming cyclists. Addtionally, when traffic is stopped for the 6th Avenue light, the temptation to turn right without much of a look (perhaps they were waved on) is easy—especially since the paint of the bike lane disappears around that stretch. See the image below of a gray car turning right out of MacDougal.

4. Prince street is a fantastic way to get across town (partner it with Rivington if you are coming from the East side and you have yourself a doozy of a ride). You pass through several different neighborhoods, all lively and great for taking in the scene. You also have a good set of options for continuing uptown in Hudson Street, Lafayette, Hudson River Greenway. (Unfortunately, the downtown options are limited).

notes from the road: cars doing good

Earlier this week, a well-known proponent of vehicular cycling said the following to me: “Slow motor traffic is an advantage for cyclists. If there were no autos, the streeets might just fill up with pedestrians and make it harder to bike.”

The statement took me by surprise. Like many urban cyclists, I often consider the automobile public enemy #1. Could they actually do some good once in a while?

Two recent trips tell me yes.

1. West 16th Street
For some reason, the streets between 15th and 21st in Chelsea (west of 6th Ave) are surprisingly quiet. As I rode along an empty W. 16th Street, I couldn’t help but wonder if the parked cars were actually creating a safety barrier between the sidewalk and street. See image below.

W. 16th Street

2. West 30th Street
The traffic around Madison Square Garden is often a nightmare, and the bikeway on 8th Avenue in that area is often clogged with cabs and event-related traffic. A good off-shoot road is W. 30th, which also has constant traffic, but since it is limited to a narrow street, the cycling is actually quite safe. Dooring is still a fear, but the cars once again seem to be doing cyclists a favor.Below is a shot from earlier this week.

W. 30th Street

late-night riding

Survey results are pouring in (thank you for all that have taken in—please keep forwarding it on), and one of the highlights are the numbers of “I bike because it is fun” and “Cycling allows me to see NYC in such a unique way” type answers. I used to think that I was the only one who saw this as a benefit (I am a fool). Apparently, even Senator Schumer is down.

I was reminded of this last night, as I was leaving a friend’s apartment. Confronted with an 85 block trek home, I was initially hesitant about the ride home. This changed once I jumped on a completely empty Hudson River Greenway (the same heavy-traffic route used by many during the day). With a post-rain sky illuminating the night, I rode home with a smile on my face. Pictures from the ride are below.

Did I get a bit wet? Yes.
Was it worth it? Undoubtedly.